Print Zombie

newspapers and magazines ain’t dead yet…

2010-01-21T05:13:00.000-08:00

This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project
initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on
handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for
digital magazines in the near future. The concept uses the power of digital media to create a rich and meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated
features of printed magazines.

They went and did it.

2009-08-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ikea changed its overall font. After 50 years of Futura, they've gone over to the dark side and have begun using Verdana. The typography fanboys and girls are most upset.

Bounty "Big spills"

2009-08-18T06:17:00.000-07:00

What better way to demonstrate the superior absorbency of Bounty paper towels than with some big spills. And they are talking about some seriously big spills. On Seventh Avenue in New York, busy commuters are greeted by a six foot tall coffee cup knocked over and spilling onto the sidewalk - complete with steam and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. And in Los Angeles, weekend shoppers find a seven-foot long, 550 pound ice pop melting in the Third Street Promenade. Both these spills were accompanied by sampling and outdoor ads delivering the message, Bounty "Makes small work of BIG spills".

Terminix "Roach"

2009-08-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

All it takes is a small crack for a cockroach to enter your home.

BC Adventure Survival Training "Business Card"

2009-08-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

The first rule of wilderness survival is preparation. That's why BC Adventure wanted to make sure everyone who stepped through their door left at least a little more prepared for the wild. Made from organic beef jerky this laser etched card is good to eat for up to a year in case you find yourself stuck in a precarious situation.

IKEA "Home furnishing liner"

2009-07-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Persuade the Japanese consumers that home furnishing is a great and fun way to improve their life at home and succesfully launch IKEA's first store in Kansai region. They hi-jacked an entire train both inside and outside, furnished with IKEA extiles, demonstrating that a monotonous daily place can be transformed into a place full of inspiration, with just a piece of textiles. The train is a symbolic line connecting from the centre of Kobe-city to IKEA Portisland store, that represents “From the place to sleep To home to enjoy”. TV, newspapers, online and other media made the IKEA launch event/store opening a major story, creating extensive WOM. Opening day sales set the world record for all IKEA stores, with nearly 40,000 customers. Bronze Cannes Lions Outdoor Winner.

Road Safety "Bleeding Billboard"

2009-07-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

Rain changes everything. Please drive to the Conditions.

IKEA "Staircase Drawer"

2009-07-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

The objective of the communication was to highlight IKEA’s innovative ways to save space. The idea presents IKEA store’s main staircase as a chest of drawers with everything inside neatly organised, highlighting the efficient use of space in an impactful and larger-than-life manner. Bronze Cannes Lions Outdoor Winner.

Standard Bank "Home improvement envelope"

2009-07-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

With a limited budget, Standard Bank requested a direct mail piece that would communicate the benefits of Access Bond to its current clients with existing home loans. Acces Bond gives clients access to the equity available in their bond. The money can then be tranferred into an Access Living card and used for a range of things, from home improvements to holidays. Using a simple envelope they conveyed the benefits of Access Bond to the recipient quickly and easily by using beuatiful illustration. As soon as the envelope is opened an additional room/level is added to the roof of house demonstrating the benefit of Access Bond in an immediate and visual way. Clients who received the mail were engeged and the unusual design on the envelope encouraged them to open the communication.

Lübbe & Co "Paper handkerchief book"

2009-06-24T05:55:00.001-07:00

Bastei-Lübbe Verlag is the largest publisher of sappy romance novels in the German-speaking countries. One of its most prominent authors is best-selling American author Sasha Lord. Due to her enthralling romantic adventure novels, Sasha Lord has become one of the most successful international best-selling authors of her genre. “Across a Wild Sea”, yet another promising title from the Bastei-Lübbe publishing house, came out at the beginning of 2009. To promote the title, their customer wanted to have an extraordinary campaign that would do justice to the love story and significantly increase the number of pre-release orders. The number of people who read sentimental literature is very large – as is the number of titles competing for space on the market. In spite of this, Sasha Lord has over the course of the years written her way into readers’ hearts and defended her title as a best-selling author. Her readership and their expectations of her are enormous. So the most obvious thing to do was give readers what they want: emotions. With this promotional concept, they want to let the target audience know without a doubt that this title is best-selling author Sasha Lord’s most emotional work yet. The way that an excerpt of the material was presented was a good clue as to the tear-filled content of the novel: the first chapters of the tear-jerking book were printed as an exclusive preview on paper handkerchiefs. At first the weight and look of the excerpt makes it seem just like the real version of the book. Upon opening the hardcover however, the reader realises that a box of tissues is hidden inside the book. The pages of this box have the first chapter of the novel printed on them. This “pocket-handkerchief book” in a tissue box was sent to 200 publisher’s dealers and about 300 loyal readers. The response of regular readers addressed before publication was gigantic. 70% ordered the book directly from the publisher even before the official sales launch. The eye-catching advertising campaign caused sales to reach the level forecast for the whole month of January in just the first week! Bronze Cannes Lions Direct Winner.

Adidas "Adithread"

2009-06-24T05:27:00.000-07:00

In 2007 the Adidas sponsored All Blacks suffered the most unexpected defeat at the Rugby World Cup. The challenge was to reconnect a disillusioned fan base with the team and strengthen Adidas’ brand position in the process. To do this they needed an idea that would get fans closer to the All Blacks by registering their support in a new, innovative and disruptive way. The insight was that the strength of the fans relationship was in the enduring power and legacy of the All Black jersey. The promotion was an integrated campaign where the jersey itself became message and medium. An interactive promotion invited fans to sign a virtual jersey thread. In a world first they then used nanotechnology to imprint the names on to a real thread to be sewn into the captains jersey. Alongside this was a unique chance for babies born on a 2008 test match day to be gifted a special All Blacks jersey, capturing a new generation of fans. The campaign took on a life of its own generating blog stories around the world and over 25,000 google results. The New Zealand media ran the campaign as the lead story in the primetime news bulletins and it made the front section of the major metropolitan newspapers. The website generated traffic from over 150 countries. 68% of NZ babies born on test match dates claimed their special jersey. Interest in the All Blacks was restored with research showing 18% more fans expressing interest. Ultimately, almost 10,000 fans got to have their name nano-imprinted into a piece of All Black history. Never before had sports fans had such an interactive and tangible way in which to become a part of their favourite team. The promotion would literally stitch the fans into adidas product and All Black history, deepening the relationship between the fans, adidas product, and All Blacks team. Additionally, they were giving the new generation of fans a special memory and affinity for the adidas brand they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. Gold Cannes Lions Promo Winner.

Fiat 500C "Happy Drive"

2009-06-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

Fiat 500 was launched yesterday in France with an unnusual test-drive: using Google Street View, it's possible to drive it around Paris, London, NY an other cities.

Check the site here:
Fiat 500C Test Drive

Sexy Clube "The Don't Get Caught Mirror"

2009-06-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

Sexy Clube, one of Brazil's top adult entertainment websites, wanted customers to renew their annual subscription. They developed a rearview mirror that fits the computer monitors and delivered it to their customers at home. This solved a major issue in their lives: to get gaught when watching adult content. Sexy Clube's contact center received hundreds of emails with compliments and thankful messages. Besides that, many blogs mentioned this as an innovative way of reaching adult content consumers. The number of resubscribers raised 23% compared to the same month of the year before.

Grey "Lite"

2009-06-16T05:28:00.001-07:00

Grey Amsterdam has launched a new service, Grey Lite, to support clients through a tough financial year, with the help of the world’s smallest website. The Grey Lite service offers ‘small jobs, small prices’ to clients who are looking for extra-fast, extra-value services with the built-in high quality standards they have come to expect from Grey Amsterdam. To reflect the philosophy that good things can come in small packages, the service is launched with a website www.greylite.nl so small you need a magnifying glass to view it. The supporting direct mail campaign involves a brochure no bigger than a postage stamp - and the essential accompanying magnifying glass.

Nissan "Cinema Ceiling"

2009-06-16T05:22:00.001-07:00

Nissan required a regional tool in order to increase the numbers of testdrives for its Nissan Micra C+C Convertible and by doing so increase the sales volume as well. In order to get the right feeling of driving a convertible they went to a place where their audience was highly concentrated and in the right mood for an unseen commercial. A commercial that wasn't just shown on the cinema screen but un the cinema ceiling. By doing so they were certain to deliver the right message at the right moment: "convertible-feeling for everyone!" An increase in Nissan Micra C+C test drives by 19.2%

Victoria Bug Zoo.

2009-06-16T05:11:00.000-07:00

The Victoria Bug Zoo is all about experiencing the world of insects and spiders. This TSA, made from a plastic sheet with hundreds of small magnifying lenses, allowed passersby to see through a bug’s eyes.

Neotel "The physical e-mail"

2009-06-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

Using standard envelope direct mailing, they needed to interest a potential consumer base of 1,000 small to medium enterprises in a new and faster internet offering from Neotel. But how do you effectively sell new technology using good old standard postage? Instead of looking at flat mailing as a restrictive medium, they decided to take advantage of the medium's primary shortcoming - it takes days to reach its target audience. So that became the idea: Let's create an e-mail that takes days to arrive so as to illustrate just how slow their competitors are. Then sell Neotel as the faster solution.

Wordsworth Books "3D flyer"

2009-06-10T05:23:00.000-07:00

Get consumers to walk into Wordsworth Bookstores and not their biggest competitor located in the same shopping mall. Using augmented reality technology, they illustrated how Wordsworth books bring stores to life. After entering a partnership with the iMac store, opposite their client's store in the mall, they handed out flyers to consumers, wich were "torn out pages" from Wordsworth books, that when held up to the Macs' webcams became animated. 3-Dimensional depictions of the words. Consumers loved how the page came to life, Wordsworth Books reported increased traffic in their stores for the duration of the promotion.

Save Our Seas "Warning"

2009-06-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

100 million sharks are slaughtered by humans every year. By comparison, only 4 humans are attacked. This begs the question: Who is the real predator? They devised a warning sign for their client. It was stuck on the Two Oceans Aquarium shark tank and warned of the predators byond this point. However, it was printed "backwards" so that the warning was actually for the sharks. An overwhelming response from international and local visitors to date with international rollout planned.

Romani "Ecological Business Card"

2009-06-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Design a business card for an environmental consultant. Business cards are usually made of paper. But using paper, even recycled, is not good for the environment. To avoid this issue, the solution was to not print any card at all, but to create a rubber stamp and then "recycle" anything that is at hand (carton paper, cigarette packs, napkins, and other wastes) into business cards. The new "business card" communicates clearly what this proffesional offers: clever new ways of recycling, saving money and protecting the environment. More than a card it's a piece of communication.

Memac Ogilvy "Recession business cards"

2009-06-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

With growing economic concerns and shrinking marketing budgets, they needed to tell clients and prospective clients that in spite of - indeed because of the recession, we are more relevant to them now. What they needed was a simple, cheap and effective way to do this. They created undersized business cards with appealing designs and thought provoking lines to drive potential clients to ogilvyonrecession.com; a website offering smart strategies to deal with downturn. The responses were overwhelming. Aside from being an engaging icebreaker with their desired audience - they had produced an insightful, relevant and targeted campaign, by saving rather than spending.

Picta "Natural colors"

2009-06-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

Picta, a craftsman company specialised in interior finish, decoration and design, sent this direct mailing to promote the use of natural colors: more beautiful, brighter, safer for health and friendly to the environment because these colors are not toxic at all.

Nokia "Files everywhere"

2009-06-04T05:41:00.000-07:00

They developed a very unique and simple ambient concept to target young students in and around Sydney university campuses to increase awareness of Ovi as Nokia’s service platform which allows you to access your files anytime, anywhere.

Action Medeor e.V. "Truck"

2009-06-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

The goal was to develop a truck design that picks up the idea of the current campaign "Help in a package". The simulated three-dimensional graphic suggests that there is still room for your help. The truck drive 100.000 km (62.000 Miles) a year, most of it on highways. So the view of the simulated 3-D graphic is perfect for the situation. The truck is on the road since january 2009. Since then it had great exposure in national and local press.

Tüm Abbruch demolition company "Push Puppet"

2009-06-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

The task was to create a direct mailing for the demolition company Tüm Abbruch to drive awareness and generate new business contacts. They created a "push puppet" building that dramatized Tüm Abbruch's core business in a very immediate, playful and memorable way. Due to long planning times in this sector they had to find an approach that "cut through" and guaranteed high recall rates. The results were outstanding. Overall 13,5% of the recipients responded via mail or direct phone calls. Most of them wanted an additional piece for their colleagues. New business targets were fully met.

Salvation Army "This Campaign Cost Nothing"

2009-06-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

A pro-bono campaign that launched May 11 for the Salvation Army of Northern New England to create awareness of the organization's services. The entire campaign was done for free, creative was donated by VIA, and all media space was donated by local businesses. The campaign uses guerrilla media uniquely tailored to each business. It is also supported by print, online and T.V.

Vodafone/Earth Hour "Fluorescent freecard"

2009-06-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

Switch off the light one more time on March 28th between 20:30 and 21:30! Let this be your vote against global warming.

Vaude Outdoor Equipment "Extreme conditions"

2009-06-02T05:11:00.000-07:00

Vaude. Equipment for extreme conditions.

Index Livingmall "Model Room Bags"

2009-06-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

The Agust '08 catalogue for Index Livingmall, the furniture store, is introducing the index condo set. Instead of the typical catalogue, it's designed like a shopping bag. The different bag sizes represent the room spaces. With these "bags" the consumer can see the furniture and decor items fit in the condo space printed inside. The detachable items gives the consumer the experience of designing their own space. No doubt will these catalogue bags be the hottest items for Index.

Commercial Trader "Harvested mat"

2009-06-02T05:06:00.000-07:00

Due to a lack of space, Commercial Trader's application to attend the NAMPO Agricultural Trade Show was unsuccessful. Commercial Trader asked us to give them brand presence around the trade show in a way that would not create conflict with the organisers of the event. The NAMPO Agricultural Trade Show is attended by over 35.000 farmers from all over South Africa, so they decided to target the Bed & Breakfasts surrounding the show. They received permission from the B&Bs to place welcome mats outside bedroom doors. Each mat had a section shaved out of it, and a tractor strategically placed so that it looked like the tractor had harvested the mat. A copy of the Commercial Trader was left on the mat for the farmers to take home. Commercial Trader got to welcome the farmers before they'd even attended the event. Furthermore, those farmers now had the resource to find all the tractors and machinery they would encounter.

Cadbury’s Creme Egg Twisted.

2009-06-02T05:03:00.001-07:00

CMW unveils its new ‘Goo on the Loose’ campaign for the Creme Egg Twisted bar – the chaotic brother to the Cadbury Creme Egg. Activity begins with a direct mail ‘security strongbox’ sent to hardcore ‘Goo’ fans – who talk about the brand on social networking sites. The strongbox carries Twisted bars, however the recipient will spot an empty wrapper amongst the bars and a hole in the bottom where one has escaped. The recipient is then challenged to become an agent of the CIA (Cadbury’s Intelligence Agency) and track down the escaped bars. Online advertising of the Twisted bar creating mayhem will also direct potential agents to the site. Have a look: www.cremeeggtwisted.com

National Geographic "Jail set"

2009-06-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

To promote a shock documentary series on day-to-day life in one of America's worst prisons. More than 30.000 place settings depicting a picture of a disgusting prison meal tray were distributed at lunchtime in Paris eateries and brasseries (restaurants). This ambient promotional campaign for the show generated far more attention than the press and poster campaign that was launched concurrently. The outcome? The chain achieved its highest viewing figures since its foundation in 2001. Many articles were written mentioning the operation in the French daily press and in French magazines.

Iams Dog Frisbee

2009-06-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

Iams Dog Food makes strong dogs.

Pantene OE

2009-06-01T05:42:00.001-07:00

Media establishments received a variety of information on Pantene's latest products and most recent events in a branded envelope. The string that seals the envelope appears to be coming from the woman's hair on the flap. To seal or unseal it means putting pressure on the string effectively dramatizing strong hair.

Yer OUT!

2009-05-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

A Modest Proposal: Three-Strikes for Print

By Ed Felten - May 13th, 2009

Yesterday the French parliament adopted a proposal to create a "three-strikes" system that would kick people off the Internet if they are accused of copyright infringement three times.

This is such a good idea that it should be applied to other media as well. Here is my modest proposal to extend three-strikes to the medium of print, that is, to words on paper.

My proposed system is simplicity itself. The government sets up a registry of accused infringers. Anybody can send a complaint to the registry, asserting that someone is infringing their copyright in the print medium. If the government registry receives three complaints about a person, that person is banned for a year from using print.

As in the Internet case, the ban applies to both reading and writing, and to all uses of print, including informal ones. In short, a banned person may not write or read anything for a year.

A few naysayers may argue that print bans might be hard to enforce, and that banning communication based on mere accusations of wrongdoing raises some minor issues of due process and free speech. But if those issues don't trouble us in the Internet setting, why should they trouble us here?

Yes, if banned from using print, some students will be unable to do their school work, some adults will face minor inconvenience in their daily lives, and a few troublemakers will not be allowed to participate in -- or even listen to -- political debate. Maybe they'll think more carefully the next time, before allowing themselves to be accused of copyright infringement.

In short, a three-strikes system is just as good an idea for print as it is for the Internet. Which country will be the first to adopt it?

Once we have adopted three-strikes for print, we can move on to other media. Next on the list: three-strikes systems for sound waves, and light waves. These media are too important to leave unprotected.

Transperth "Bus"

2009-05-12T05:49:00.001-07:00

They remind football fans at Subiaco Stadium that public transport is an alternative to the congestion and parking problems on match days.

Volvo XC60"Ski Boots"

2009-05-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Volvo Norway sponsors Norway's premier Alpine resorts. They are constantly looking for new ways of communicating their sponsorship. To create buzz and awareness around their premium SUV model Volvo XC60, ski boots were redecorated and turned into the car itself.

Sundown Solar Protection

2009-05-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

Sundown Solar Protection: an ad that reacts under the sun just as your skin would. Magazine insert that invites the reader to discover an image that shows who uses and who doesn't use Sundown. When exposing the insert to the light (UVB rays), the man, that apparently doesn't use the product, becomes very red, while the woman, with Sundown in her purse and on her body, maintains a sun tan. The redness ceases once the image is taken away from the light.

Scala JWT Egg Fight

2009-05-12T05:37:00.000-07:00

Every Easter all Romanians engage in an age long tradition, that no one seems to know, or, indeed, care, where it came from. They pick what they believe to be the strongest egg in the basket and they smash it against another, chosen by one of their friends, along with the words "Christ is resurrected", to which the opponent answers "He is resurrected indeed". It's always difficult to pick up the strongest egg for the fight and everyone has his own method or tricks. Scala JWT Bucharest decided to add a twist on another age old tradition - intricately decorating the Easter eggs - by providing their friends and clients with a set of stickers designed to pimp the unsuspecting eggs for the big battle.

Blackwell's unveils Espresso Book Machine - any title printed while you wait

2009-05-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

It's not elegant: it looks like a large photocopier. But the Espresso Book Machine could herald the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented his printing press more than 500 years ago.

Unveiled today at Blackwell's Charing Cross Road branch, in central London, the machine prints and binds books in five minutes.

Blackwell believes the introduction signals the end to the frustration of being told a title is out of print or not in stock. The Espresso offers access to almost half a million books, from a facsimile of Lewis Carroll's original manuscript for Alice in Wonderland to Mrs Beeton's Book of Needlework.

The company hopes to increase the catalogue to more than a million titles by the end of the summer, the equivalent of 23.6 miles of shelf space or more than 50 bookshops rolled into one. The majority of these books are out of copyright, but Blackwell is working with UK publishers to increase access to in-copyright writing. So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive, the firm says.

"This could change bookselling fundamentally," said Blackwell's chief executive, Andrew Hutchings. "It's giving the chance for smaller locations, independent booksellers, to have the opportunity to truly compete with big stock-holding shops and Amazon ... I like to think of it as the revitalisation of the local bookshop industry. If you could walk into a local bookshop and have access to one million titles, that's pretty compelling."

The Espresso can cater to a wide range of needs from serving academics keen to purchase reproductions of rare manuscripts to wannabe novelists needing a copy of their self-published novels, says Blackwell, which will be monitoring its use to decide pricing and demand. The plan is to roll out the innovation across the 60-store network, with the flagship Oxford branch likely to be an early recipient as well as campus-based shops.

The Espresso is the brainchild of the American publisher Jason Epstein and was a Time magazine invention of the year. It proved a star attraction at the London Book Fair this week, where it printed more than 100 pages a minute, clamping them into place, then binding, guillotining and spitting out the (warm as toast) finished article.

Described as an "ATM for books" by its US proprietor On Demand Books, the Espresso machine has been established in the US, Canada and Australia, and in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt.

The Charing Cross Road machine is the first to be set up in a UK bookstore. It cost Blackwell about £120,000, but Phill Jamieson, head of marketing, said: "It has the potential to be the biggest change since Gutenberg."

Taken from The Guardian and thanks for pointing this article out: David Colpitts at david@digitaljoy.ca

Zohra Mouhetta "Lose Your Belly"

2009-05-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

The brief was to design a business card for fitness trainer Zohra Mouhetta. To stand out from all the leave-behinds people receive every day, they designed a unique, foldable business card that invites the recipient to interact with it. In a world of standardized and formatted business cards, Zohra’s card stood out and made for a memorable hand out. Its design not only complemented her profession, but also demonstrated the effectiveness of her personal training programmes by inviting the recipient to tear off excess flab. Though exact response rates were not available at the time of this submission, the number of enquiries and sign-ups, including corporate clients, increased substantially within a month.

Liu Shuang "Acupuncture"

2009-05-01T05:40:00.000-07:00

To communicate in a very low cost way their client's Acupuncture Services, to the general public in general and Western Expatriates in particular. The latter are increasingly switching to alternative medicines and therapy. They created this small poster wich they posted on notice boards of Supermarkets and Coffee shops frequented by Western Expatriates. The big idea here was, they used tacks like Acupuncture needles to hold the poster in place. By doing so, they converted this simple poster into a demonstration of Acunpuncture. During the month when these small posters ran, bookings for our client's Acupuncture services increased by 27%.

Vitasprint B12 "The world's toughest pairs game"

2009-04-22T05:01:00.000-07:00

Vitasprint B12 is the only product with three synchronized active ingredients that help enhance nerves, brain and cellular metabolism. They were briefed to illustrate the positive effects Vitasprint B12 has on ones brain power. They created a seemingly ordinary pairs game that is to be distributed among Germany's pharmacists. At a closer look, however, it soon becomes clear that the matching pairs are extremely hard to find because the images show only minimal differences. This game obviously requires extraordinary power of concentration and mental performance. The Vitasprint field force reported: extended but cheerful visits, lots of spinning pharmacists' heads and the certainty that Vitasprint B12 is definitely at the top of pharmacists' minds again.

Prison Break Direct Mail

2009-04-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

In order to communicate to journalists and media buyers the last season of Prison Break,on FOX, in which the Scofield brothers need to decipher codes to reach to freedom, a different direct mail was sent.

Media agencies and other media received an inviolable box simulating a prison with a mobile phone inside. Meanwhile e-mails were sent "asking for help" for whom was good deciphering codes. In these e-mails was a part of the code and the FOX's website was hidden the other part.The person finding the code would get the mobile phone. A Michael Scofield lookalike would come and break the box "releasing" the mobile phone.

MTV "Eat this ad"

2009-04-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

To publicize the MTV Young Universe Brief on the theme of sustainability, they created a totally sustainable ad: in edible paper. Fot this action we also created a website www.comaestenuncio.com.br. Wich offered a promotion inviting people to send in their recipes using the edible paper as an ingredient. A famous chef was invited to create the first dish and invite people to take part in the promotion. There were thousands of hits and hundreds of recipes and the best won an invitation to the award ceremony of the Brazilian Video Music Awards. The edible paper aroused so much curiosity that it even made the news programs. An incalculable amount of nationwide spontaneous media was achieved for the brand. This brief event was a huge success and attracted a massive market presence.

Solo "Bib"

2009-04-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

Alarming new statistics show that the line between man and ladyman has never been blurrier. Men are now spending more time shopping, going to day spas, talking about their feelings, and worst of all - even waxing their chests. And it's not just the average man on the street that's undergoing this evil transformation, even our favourite sporting heroes have fallen victim. But thanks to our friends at Solo, the real man thirst crusher, help is on the way. Now, every sports supporter can beat their chest in true man style with the Solo Man Bib. Designed exclusively for the Australian international Twenty/20 cricket series, the Solo Man Bib helped "mansform" supporters from all teams into pectoral pounding hirsute man beasts. As well as being the must-have accessory for all supporters. the Solo Man Bib was also the official uniform for the hordes of fans competing in the world's first Chest Test a unique sports event that put man against beast in the ultimate fight to the death (well, hiccups) in a Solo sculling competition.

Oooops! My bad.

2009-04-07T06:34:00.001-07:00

When you're planning on doing some doorstep drops to promote something, it's always a really super-wise idea to ensure that whatever you've chosen to actually drop isn't something that generates alarm in the recipient. Y'know, like white powder in an envelope or green pills left anonymously on doorsteps. That kind of thing tends to do the exact opposite of what you wanted it too and you wind up looking like a bit of an idiot.

Actually, like a huge idiot...

sometimes you just don't need copy...

2009-04-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

you really, really don't...res ipsa loquitor

WWF "Coins"

2009-04-06T05:40:00.000-07:00

WWF campaign in order to raise donations, where magnetic posters were placed at cinemas, gyms and reception areas in company buildings, and relied on a paint by numbers type method of placing certain coins on the highlighted positions to reveal the hidden creature. "Make your donation to the WWF Brazil here and see who you'll be helping".

We need to promote our nightclub...

2009-04-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

I know, let's do up some flyers showing the Pope dancing with some random blonde woman. Oh, and let's photoshop in a nice big bottle of lager for him to hold on to.

C'mon, what could possibly go wrong?

AquarioMania "Bring life anywhere"

2009-04-02T06:18:00.001-07:00

In a bus stop, instead of an usual printed ad, they made a real aquarium full of real fishes. It showed that, with AquarioMania, you will bring life anywhere. Even to a bus shelter. Hey, free sushi for the homeless!

Our budget is bigger than the bailout

2009-04-01T09:02:00.001-07:00

How much advertising do you think a trillion dollars will get you? Yeah. That's a lot. Hell, your descendants 7 generations from now will still be seeing your media buy.

But what if the trillion dollars was in Zimbabwe, where hyperinflation has rendered currency into worthless paper. Then how much of a campaign do you think you'll be able to pull off?

A billboard for The Zimbabwean composed entirely of Zimbabwean bank notes. What more proof do you need of a country’s total economic collapse than being able to stick trillions worth of currency onto a billboard...

You'd best do as we say lest we 'retouch' you

2009-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

Q: How do you attract attention to your photo retouching services?
A: Blackmail

There's packaging. Then there's Packaging.

2009-03-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you turn a designer loose and just leave them alone.

Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa has created a series of creative fruit juice packages that have the look and feel of the fruit they contain.

Damnit - I was promised a flying car!

2009-03-31T08:23:00.000-07:00

Where's my flying car? And my robot? Where in the hell is my robot?

Advertising using the future as a theme is always an interesting idea. But sometimes promises are made and not kept. Anyone can imagine the future. But the cold hard light of retrospection sometimes make the imaginings looks a little...well, dated. Look around, cars ain't flying and I'm typing this in, not my own personal robot.

Personally I'd rather take high tech and insert it into historical ads. Like Segway did. Well, they didn't, someone else did, but the idea seems to resonate more than some kind of speculative imagining of a possible future...

Finger lickin' good infrastructure

2009-03-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

KFC wants to take the burden of road repairs away from the consumer. Ain't that nice of them? They also want to advertise. So they're going to "re-fresh" the roads that need to be resurfaced...

I just don't know what to think about this. It's like the 'adopt a highway' gone wrong. At what point does a company's altruism and its desire for promotion go too far? Sponsored daycare? Free funerals?

Illegal billboards to come down...now.

2009-03-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

The Ontario Superior Court has decided in the favour of the City of Toronto, giving it the legal right to remove any billboard that lacks planning permission or a valid permit.

"The Court ruled that the City may proceed with removing Strategic Media’s illegal billboards while Strategic Media continues with its constitutional challenge against the City’s signs by-laws."

The fight over illegal signs resulted in the squaring off of IllegalSigns.ca and the OOD/OOH advertising company Strategic Media. The Court eventually ruled in favour of the City and IllegalSigns.ca, forcing Strategic Media to take down 35 signs. But Strategic Media is far from the only culprit in the illegal signs drama - far from it. The city is home to hundreds, possibly more than a thousand illegal signs.

Maruti Genuine Accessories "Key"

2009-03-27T05:15:00.000-07:00

An increase in car thefts in the city had people worried about car security. And for Batra Auto Company (dealers of Murati - India's No.1 car company), it was the right time to push the genuine Maruti authorized car security systems. So the brief was to simply remind people how they could keep on driving their favourite car by securing it with genuine Maruti security systems. They had a simple solution to the problem. And the key to it was simply put, the "key"! They made some dummy keys that would fit in most Maruti cars and left them hanging from the door of cars parked in parking lots, outside apartment blocks, office buildings and so on. So that when the owners came back to the cars, it looked like someone was trying to tinker with the locks. A scary thought at that! And the tag attached to the key warned of the fact that next time they might not be as lucky! Thousands of enquiries, wich eventually led to a 130% jump in sales of genuine Maruti systems by Batra Auto Company. And that too in the first month itself. This activation also led to consumer affinity and goodwill towards Batra Auto Company. The only ones left unhappy were the carjackers!

Roche "Anti-Stress Balls"

2009-03-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

Breast cancer is the cancer with the highest incidence in Portugal. About 4,500 new cases are detected annually. And the death rate is one of the highest in Europe. Their challenge was to create a simple low-cost action to raise women's awareness about the importance of self-exams and thus help them detect breast nodules or lumps. Simple and revealing, just like the self-exam. The agency created an anti-stress ball with a defomed stone inside, simulating a tumour. On squeezing the ball, the women feels a foreign object wich raises her curiosity. "You don't see breast cancer. You feel it. Do the self-exam". 50,000 balls and a flyer - explaining the correct way of doing the self-exame were produced and distributed to women on the street, at companies, hospitals and at theme-related events. During the action period, records showed a 22% increase in mammography exams and a 28% rise inhospital consultations.

Smoke'em if you got'em

2009-03-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Smoking kills. It's a fact. But how do you get through to people when they're completely jaded? Why you put a life-size pair of lungs on the street. Sure you say, been there, done that. But did you put a cigarette lighter in it? These folks did. It was for an anti smoking campaign in India. Instead of a lot of copy about how bad smoking is, they went right for the jugular (so to speak) and put an arresting visual in a very unexpected place.

I was going to pick up the hatchback, but the sedan tasted better...

2009-03-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Move over scratch-n-sniff, the 21st century is going to be the dawn of lickable ink.

The mind fairly boggles.

Imagine having to focus group what flavour your brand is?

Oy vey.

Type Thursday

2009-03-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a veritable cornucopia of type and font resources, courtesy of Lifehacker.com

It's a whole whack of some very excellent tools that will allow you to manage and better utilize your type library. It's got something for everyone and best of all, most of it is free.

Inspiration. Advertsing is Art

2009-03-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

A new stunt from Improv Everywhere in the subway, they transformed the subway into a art gallery opening, where the usual structure and object of the space become "art pieces".

Brainobrain Jumeira Child Development Program: Lego, Balloon dog, Gummi bear

2009-03-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

Here's some cool print ads, for some reason, I am off Gummi Bears now and really afraid of balloon animals.

Print Blogging Analog Style

2009-03-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

Alfred Sirleaf is an analog blogger. He take runs the “Daily News”, a news hut by the side of a major road in the middle of Monrovia. He started it a number of years ago, stating that he wanted to get news into the hands of those who couldn’t afford newspapers, in the language that they could understand. To me this just shows the power of print and text. No matter where you go, there it is. Unpowered, undigitized, untouched by anything other than one person and two implements - a flat surface and something to scratch on it with.

The New York Times knew all about him back in 2006.

Big Brother is printing for you

2009-03-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

The London police have bested their own impressive record for insane anti-terrorism posters with a new range of signs advising Londoners to go through each others' trash-bins looking for "suspicious" chemical bottles, and to report on one another for "studying CCTV cameras."

It's hard to imagine a worse, more socially corrosive campaign. Telling people to rummage in one anothers trash and report on anything they don't understand is a recipe for flooding the police with bad reports from ignorant people who end up bringing down anti-terror cops on their neighbors who keep tropical fish, paint in oils, are amateur chemists, or who just do something outside of the narrow experience of the least adventurous person on their street. Essentially, this redefines "suspicious" as anything outside of the direct experience of the most frightened, ignorant and foolish people in any neighborhood.

Even worse, though, is the idea that you should report your neighbors to the police for looking at the creepy surveillance technology around them. This is the first step in making it illegal to debate whether the surveillance state is a good or bad thing. It's the extension of the ridiculous airport rule that prohibits discussing the security measures ("Exactly how does 101 ml of liquid endanger a plane?"), conflating it with "making jokes about bombs."

The British authorities are bent on driving fear into the hearts of Britons: fear of terrorists, immigrants, pedophiles, children, knives... And once people are afraid enough, they'll write government a blank check to expand its authority without sense or limit.

What an embarrassment from the country whose level-headed response to the Blitz was "Keep Calm and Carry On" -- how has that sensible motto been replaced with "When in trouble or in doubt/Run in circles scream and shout"?

Now that's just wrong

2009-03-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

Sure, auto sales are down and dealerships are feeling the pinch. But is this the way to go about generating business?

And I quote:

"My wife went into a Wal-Mart the other day and when she came out of the store she found a note that was left on her car. It said "Please call me about your car" and was hand written on a torn off piece of notebook paper. Of course the first thing you think of is that someone bumped into it or something, but after finding no damage she called the number to see what was up. The person that answered was apparently a car salesperson from a nearby Chrysler dealership and asked if my wife was interested in trading her car in for a new one. Once my wife said no that was the end of it, but I'm just totally surprised at the tactics of the dealership to bring in customers.

Tricking people into thinking something happened to their car, which is in many cases the most expensive thing one owns and relies upon the most, is just low. Not only that, but it's not like this particular salesperson was running around putting these notes out herself considering she was able to answer her extension at worth within minutes of when the note was left. Who knows? Maybe the dealership is just sending people out with handfuls of these things targeting Chrysler vehicles in parking lots. Amazing."

When ad fates fall, so does quality

2009-03-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Continuing today's journey to the exotic lands of the former USSR, we have some examples of billboards in Russia. It seems that with the economy heading south, ad rates have all but become free. They're so cheap now that anyone, yes anyone, can buy space on a billboard and get some really quality creative out there for everyone to see.

You call that a billboard? THIS is a billboard

2009-03-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

6 square kilometers of one to be exact.

Located in downtown Moscow, it's 6000 square meters of pure advertising domination. Not something easily doable in Canada, but hey, one can always dream...

Super Print

2009-03-19T05:34:00.000-07:00

The first ever Superman comic which was bought for a meagre amount of some 35 cent has fetched $317,200 at an online auction. London: The first ever Superman comic which was bought for a meagre amount of some 35 cent has fetched $317,200 (around Rs1.6 crore) at an online auction.

Rocker John Dolmayan, drummer for the Armenian-American alternative metal band System of a Down, paid the huge amount to possess the rare book.

The untouched ‘Action Comic No. 1’ —which shows the Man of Steel lifting a car on the cover—went on sale on 27 February, After a two-week auction, Dolmayan entered the bid on Friday.Only around 100 copies of the publication are left. It is credited with being the first appearance of any cartoon superhero. the Holy Grail of comic books" . . . It's the single most important event in comic-book history."

Before the auction began there was speculation that bidders could include Samuel L. Jackson, Quentin Tarantino and Eminem, who all collect comics, and even President Obama, who is a Superman fan.

Funny...I don't think you would see people paying that much for a screen capture of a website.

Samsung Viral

2009-03-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

Non-sense viral video for Samsung with the goal to communicate the series of LCD TVs with ultraslim LEDs. For that they "created" a performance with sheeps "dressed" with LEDs guided by a sheperd dog, creating shapes like the Pong game or the Mona Lisa...

"Million Dollar Catch"

2009-03-18T05:00:00.001-07:00

Nice ambient for the TV show Million Dollar Catch. Just place a sticker at the end of the lanes and advertise for your other TV Show.

When the Vampires come, we'll be ready

2009-03-17T08:45:00.001-07:00

To promote the Vampire show "Trueblood" in Auckland, NZ, posters were put up made of a wood-composite. The trick? You could snap off your very own Vampire-killing stake. Or you could just use a bunch of them to build a small fence...

Social embarassment - the new way to advertise

2009-03-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

You decide, hey, it's a nice day, perhaps I'll go out. So you do, and you think, hey, maybe I'll hop on the bus and run some errands, so you sit down on the bench at the bus stop to wait. But why is everyone pointing at you and laughing? You're wearing pants, you don't have a waffle tangled up in your hair...oh wait, it's the bus shelter ad, it's displaying your weight, the bench is a scale...how clever.

You then decide that someone is going to suffer for this, you don't know who or when, but someone shall suffer...

Lego my ad!

2009-03-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Bricks build things. Lego builds bricks. Ads build Lego. Lego is awesome.

Restaurant-bar Le Cactus "Monday Hot Wings"

2009-03-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

Publicize Monday Night Hot Wings at Le Cactus restaurant-bar, with a very small budget. Communicate the burning effect of spicy wings by putting stickers featuring the face of a men screaming on the rear window of taxis. The man's tonque is superimposed on the central brake light, creating the effect of extreme heat. Many positive comments from current customers, increased traffic, and tingling tonques.

Batman ditches Batmobile for public transportation.

2009-03-16T07:47:00.001-07:00

It's true. The Dark Knight has gone green. See for yourself.

No two paper stocks are alike

2009-03-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

Fingerprinting blank paper - not for your fingerprints, but for the unique texture and composition of the paper itself. This, when combined with the hidden data from printers makes for a rather Orwellian scenario.

"Lamp for dark times"

2009-03-11T14:41:00.001-07:00

At the end of year 2008 they noticed that there is general uncertainty about 2009 because of the upcoming recession and cutting off communication means. They used this situation as an opportunity to create a "new business" project that will position themselves as experts for communications in a time of crisis which demands special knowledge from an agency. Innovative, memorable action that would create response and potential "new biz" contacts. The solution consisted of two parts. First one - a direct mailing in a form of a useful night light which had an appeal to visited their website www.saatchi.si/trendi. There were three presentations (trends/how/why to communicate) which also offered a change of a free lecture from their strategic department. The response was surprising. The light was sent to 70 marketing directors of biggest Slovenian companies. In the first three days they had 74 visits on their website - 46 of them were unique visitors - and spent an average of 4,3 minutes. They got 20 written responses, mainly positive. With 6 of them they established personal contact and created a change in potential cooperation in the future.

Georgia Max Coffee "Ski Toilets"

2009-03-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

Georgia Max Coffee chose to redesign the toilets of a number of key ski resorts in Japan. The cubicles were fully wrapped on all sides, so that the person caught short would have a ski jumper’s view when they were sitting on the loo. The person could look down at their skis (simply printed on the floor of the cubicle) and see the steep ski jump slope ahead of them. The toilet paper holder carried the only brand messaging in the cubicle, reading: “Seriously kick-ass intensely sweet for the real coffee super zinging unstoppable Max! Taste-explosion!” The message also featured the URL www.maxcoffee.jp, where visitors could view videos of extreme sports as well as sign up to the MAX community.

If I can't pronounce it, it must be lethal

2009-03-11T06:42:00.001-07:00

Part of the ongoing study of how the brain perceives risk - an integral part of advertising...

Self-identified rational people take pride in the fact that they can't be easily manipulated, but of course that's the pride part of their dumb monkey brains talking. Here's an interesting study that measured whether hard-to-pronounce words were perceived as riskier than words that were easier to pronounce—in this case, by comparing fake additives in food and asking which ones were more likely to be harmful.

Brand new brand news

2009-03-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

Brands are just as important as what we use to advertise them. The whole content is key thing if you will...or is it the medium is the message? I can never keep those straight.

Anyway, here's a link to a branding news site, it's mainly for U.S. based brands but there's always some spillover into the Great White North and hey, branding knows no bounds...

The periodic table of type

2009-03-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

It's like high school chem class all over again, but without lab partners and impromptu explosions. Instead, here's a very nicely laid out periodic table of type. Amuse your friends, dazzle your clients and annoy your studio artists with it.

A random sampling of cool transit wraps

2009-03-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

Someone tell the TTC and GO Transit that wraps don't have to be boring. Here are some very cool and well executed transit wraps that will leave you wishing we did something like this in Toronto...

Amnesty International "Candle"

2009-03-09T06:08:00.000-07:00

Their objective was to make people understand the meaning of the Amnesty Candle (bring the horrors to light; No one will keep us from seeing) and boost Amnesty's brand appeal. They created an "interactive card". The people who bought the candle received a card with it. They had to bring the flame of the candle close to the black card to see the image that was hidden behind the black surface.

Moodwall

2009-03-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

24 metre long display, made with 2 500 LEDs behind a semi-transparent wall - the future of outdoor advertising - making your ads more dynamic...

Not print, but an economic indicator

2009-03-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

It's getting pretty bad out there...at least if this is classed as a new career option...

Walk left, stand right, advertise all over.

2009-03-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Outdoor and out of home ads are everywhere, but using an escalator presents unique challenges. Here are some real winners...

Quite possibly the most memorable business card on the planet

2009-03-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

There's one thing print can do - it can go anywhere. From writing on the moon with lasers to manipulating jets of water to spell out text, and of course, skywriting. But nothing, nothing at all, compares to this - the most memorable business card ever...

And just for fun, here are some more novel and creative examples.

Did your logo cost as much as a latte?

2009-03-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

That's bad, very, very bad. Here's why. Logo design is vital to a company, and a bad logo does as much damage as a crooked accountant or a customer service rep with Tourette's.

Toyota "Greeting Card"

2009-03-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

Dealership Toyota - Lovse wanted to wish a Happy New Year to their visitors in december. New year's card should be innovative, memorable and was supposed to reflect the holiday spirit. One greeting card - double usage. Card had a removable part/sticker with shown dimensions of break lights illustrated on the back for four most sought after Toyota models. Every step on the breaks created a New Year's greeting to all those driving behind.

Nissan "Catch up"

2009-03-05T05:02:00.000-08:00

The Nissan Murano has always been mould-breaking in the the looks department - part SUV, part luxury sadan. But the new Murano's smart technologically advanced features and styling made it just as innovative on the inside - helping it move ahead of the competition. Their brief was to find the best way to demonstrate that in direct mail. How do you demonstrate a car that's ahead of it's time? Show the rest of the world trying to catch up with it. Right down to the very direct mail promoting it. They sent the first half of the mailing, with the promise that this was just the half of it. They then followed with the second half of the mailing the next day, wich both visually and physically demonstrated the world trying to catch up with the new Nissan Murano - an engaging and unique way to use direct mail to best portray the idea.

Mental Ticket

2009-02-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

The CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association) wanted to educate the public on how common mental illness affect 1 is 5 people and wanted to help fight the negative stigma associated with it. They thought that the '1 in 5' stat sounded like gambling odds .Thousands of tickets were left in office buildings, food courts & shopping malls for people to find, scratch & learn.

Sony Bravia "Zoetrope"

2009-02-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

To promote Sony’s new Motionflow Bravia TV, Fallon built the world’s largest zoetrope, a rotating series of static images viewed through small slits, which was officially verified by the Guinness Book of Records. The filming of the zoetrope took place last November in the town of Venaria, near Turin, Italy.

Kraft or Krap?

2009-02-25T15:19:00.001-08:00

With a new purpose and values setting a fresh direction, Kraft Foods also gave its corporate logo a facelift to more clearly deliver “delicious.” Starting today, people around the world will begin to see the new identity that deliciously features a smile, the natural reaction to delicious foods and experiences, and a colorful flavor burst. It signals to employees, consumers and investors what the new Kraft Foods is all about.

I am not really sure what to say about this rebrand. The original logo was iconic and everyone knows what it looks like. The new one has a generic feel to. The tag line font is a terrible choice, which ruins the clean feel of the previous logo.

Rock and Roll all night!

2009-02-25T15:12:00.000-08:00

For Carnaval. MTV Brazil is inserting Kiss masks in magazines. At this time of the year, people often wear masks and only listen to samba. But not on MTV, which goes on playing rock 'n roll.

In Vino Veritas - and some gorgeous design

2009-02-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

Wine. Ah wine. From the lowest plonk to sublime vintages, it is known around the world, and while there are many, many different bottles out there, the packaging design has been, in a word, uninspired. Here are 25 examples of some very tasty designs in labelling, packaging, and in some cases, bottling.

Fonts. Our new overlords.

2009-02-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

Researchers have found that instructions written in plain, straight-forward fonts are more likely to be properly completed.

Hopefully your call to action or time-limited offer aren't done in Comic Sans, but if they are, you've been warned. It's worth noting the real impact of simple text on productivity. If the text itself is challenging, the chances of motivation to tackle the tasks it describes seem to taper off.

Type for Tuesday

2009-02-24T06:46:00.000-08:00

An informative article about the rise of type courtesy of the New York Times, a veritable fount of type design.

Don't mess with perfection

2009-02-24T06:42:00.000-08:00

Tropicana, that cool refreshing brand full of 100% Florida orange juice went and did something rather inadvisable. They changed the packaging. Not a wise idea. While it isn't DM per se, this article shows how consumers can become very attached to whats outside as well as whats inside.